Jean and Mary and The Posada Family 2012 (by sarah)

There is a little wooden nativity set that moves around the village over Advent and then does a procession on Christmas Eve. Jean has managed to get hold of it basically every year and this year is no different and more than that it was a lovely thing for the girls to do together this year, they really interacted well together as Jean organised it into a kind of play!

Patrick Moore RIP (by sarah)

Yesterday I heard the sad news that Sir Patrick Moore had died. He would have been 90 next year but didn't quiet make it. I feel there is very little point in giving an over view of his life and triumphs but instead I feel very much that I need to say what he ment to me and others like me.

I remember as a child being excited if I got to stay up and watch Sky At Night, I remember being plucked out of bed to watch the most amazing meteor shower ever with my father - because he had been watching The Sky At Night. I was so small I had to be carried out and I remember it! Along with the moon eclipse and looking at creators on the moon with my uncles telescope.

But this is standard - this is what everybody has as memories of him. But we were fortunate enough to have met him, to have had a conversation and to have been inspired more. He was giving a talk somewhere in Croydon - I can't remember explicitly where but my friend Becca worked there part time and so we had discounted tickets and we got together a huge group of us, from Imperial College and Alaric's friends from various mailing lists.

This was pre-blog days so I've had to look it up in my diary 🙂 Below is the book I got him to 'sign'. There was no photo as as we didn't have the digital camera either.

The talk itself was interesting though we did struggle with understanding everything that was said - this was less than ten years ago so he was already an old man. He sat there like the typical eccentric English gentleman and pulled off stunts like inflating balloons and sending them whizzing around to demonstrate the physics of rockets 🙂

Alaric's party piece for many years was a demonstration of this!

During the break we went and purchased books and I was barged out the way by some ingnoramous who had to have his book and NOW! I was awaiting the first lot of back treatment and it put my shoulder in spasm. I couldn't stop shaking with the pain but I went back for the last half none the less and then I asked a question which got answered and was really chuffed. It was at the point were I was getting into the meteorites at the Natural History Museum and was attempting to find a PhD.

Me and Becca wondered down to queue to get our books signed, but when we got there it was obvious he was in a lot of pain, his fingers where in a dreadful state from the arthritis and too my horror I watched the guy who had barged me out of the way earlier on, grab his hand and shake it!

The poor man was now in even more pain and yet he then stopped to talk to me and Becca when there was alot of people to get through still. We told him how much he had inspired us and that we were both going into related fields. He gave us lots of encouragement and the fact I was ill suddenly seemed a very small barrier, he had had medical stuff all through his life too. He then tried to introduce us to same people he thought would be useful for us to know but they had had to leave already to get trains etc...

I have not gone on to have my career but I am writing scifi and that is something else he has inspired me in. Becca on the other hand is working her socks off getting informations about space and science and what not out there to the public!

We will miss him and as I delve further into the realms of science communication I realise that he was perhaps the first in the age of the T.V.

p.s. the signature in the book was done by Patrick Moore but using a stamp and ink pad as his arthritis made holding a pen impossible.

Swords And Mirrors (by sarah)

With the realisation that we have almost been here a year and that our sword was still not mounted on the wall we thought we would get a wiggle on and start doing all those niggly little jobs we didn't get time to do though out the year - we also needed to put hooks up for Christmas decorations etc...

We also mounted the little butterfly that Jean made me two christmasses ago! It wont sit in my preferred orientation so I may have to take sugru to it.

Here is Alaric preparing the way to drill.

The funniest bit about this though was that the sword was down off of the mantle piece and the girls were both instantly drawn to it! I love this pics and will be creating a story about them on the Wiggly Pets blog.

Cirencester’s First Christmas Slam (by sarah)

I had a great time on Friday at the first Poetry Slam to be held in Cirencester. It was organised by the fab Marcus Moore and Sara-Jane Arbury and was lots of fun. Of course I did not score very high but that is not why I go to them - this was my third Slam and I think I have drastically improved from my first one.

I performed Mummy's Socks from The Little Book of Festive Poetry and even sold a copy! Which means I have enough money to another book for the school library!

Here is a picture of me mid sock swing.

I had a great time catching up with old friends plus it was my first time out in not completely flat shoes since Mary's pregnancy. So it was win win and yes I had to use the walking stick to get back to the car but that was due a) it being cold, b) having stood around chatting to people and c) having parked far away from the venue as our sat nav doesn't understand Cirencester!

Once again I got to perform with Breda Reed Brown who is The Gloucestershire Poet Laureate, Joy-Amy, Cloe who I normally see telling stories rather than reading verse! and The Luchador Poet. Plus the lovely Tommie who I met at the qualifier for the Cheltenham Literature Festival Slam.

This time I also had Alaric with me which was lovely as we got to have a meal together as well 🙂 Just a shame he has a cold at the moment so wasn't feeling to hot on the night! (hence no video!).

However there is a video of me performing the poems at The Brewery in Cheltenham last year!

And you can go and listen to nice recordings of the poems and my christmas story at my Bandcamp.

Sarah’s Christmas Collection – audio book (by sarah)

I have spent the last week sorting out this audio book / album - it contains The Little Book of Festive Poetry, a story about a mouse and Jean and Christmas during the flood era and a song. You can listen to it free on my Salaric Bandcamp.

Unfortunately I don't seem to be able to embed it at the moment and also Bandcamp have decided to make the song the main thing so it always starts with it - this is what they've put into there home page and stuff but I can't currently unselect it. So to actually listen to the thing from the beginning you have to either download it for £3 (all profits are going to buy books for Jean's school library) or you click the back button to get to the first track. A bit annoying I know and I'm sorry about that but thought you would all like to hear it rather than me continue to faff ad infinitum.